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Google Cloud Platform sets up new global startup fund

Salesforce.com isn't the only cloud giant with a new startup fund this month.
Written by Rachel King, Contributor

A number of big players in cloud computing have been launching startup funds to accelerate adoption while searching for some new big ideas.

Google is the latest among them with the announcement of a new pool of money squared away to accelerate the growth of early-stage tech companies worldwide.

Dubbed the Google Cloud Platform for Startups, the market and area of focus is fairly obvious.

Urs Hölzle, senior vice president of technical infrastructure at Google, remarked while introducing the project at the Google for Entrepreneurs Global Partner Summit that this fund is supposed to help keep developers focused on code rather than managing infrastructure.

At the same time, it not only brings more customers and general awareness to Google Cloud Platform, but also the potential of being able to boast about hosting whatever turns out to be the next big idea or company — much like Netflix, Pinterest and Instagram over on Amazon Web Services.

Startups younger than five years old with less than $500,000 in annual revenue are eligible to apply.

If accepted, these startups will be granted with $100,000 in Cloud Platform credit, and support from Google's technical solutions team.

Google's announcement follows a similar (albeit, much more cash-heavy) initiative from Salesforce.com.

On Monday, Salesforce Ventures, the venture capital arm of the CRM brand, announced a new $100 million investment fund dedicated to businesses building new mobile apps and connected products (i.e., wearables) tapping into the Salesforce1 platform. The first wave of investments already includes DocuSign, and InsideSales.com, among others.

"We've had a great experience with our investments," reflected Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff on Tuesday while speaking at TechCrunch Disrupt, one of the most heavily focused and attended startup expos on the tech scene calendar.

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